Some people believe that we don’t have flying armored vehicles because the modern hover engines can’t support the weight. At least that’s what the ‘Engineers’ and ‘Mechanics’ say, what do those eggheads know? I think it’s because the tank jockeys enjoy the feeling of antithesis bodies popping under their treads!

- Private Frank Dougan, on patrol

–

“Fuck!” I snarled as the APC rocked violently, throwing Skyler and I into the wall. When Emily told us the trip was going to be rough, I thought she was exaggerating. I’d expected a few bumps, just like every other time we moved. Instead the APC bucked like some wild animal, constantly bouncing every few feet.

“That’s it, I’m installing a cow catcher when we get back. ” Ratchet yelled. “Last time we rushed through a horde like this it took me a week to pull all the antithesis guts out of the drive train and realign the wheels.”

“You’ll get no argument from me!” Bulldog laughed. The big man had stood up and braced himself against the roof, and appeared to be having a wonderful time being thrown around.

I spared him a single, disgruntled glance before I went back to trying to replace the battery on my blade. It was a delicate process that involved removing the kashira, taking out the old power cell, and putting in a new one. Although the cells weren’t delicate by any means, it didn’t mean I wanted to drop either the drained one or its replacement. The process was made even more difficult by the fact that Skyler had released Lala, who had climbed into my lap and was busy kneading my legs during this entire process.

Our trip back to the gate took about twenty minutes, and it took me almost that long to replace the battery. The fact that as soon as I replaced the battery the violent shaking stopped annoyed me, and entertained Skyler.

“You should have just waited!” Skyler giggled, as she gently picked up Lala, holding the tiny kitten up in front of her face like a makeshift cute base shield.

“I didn’t want to delay… what if something happened to the APC on the way back?” I pouted.

“Then you had the other blade,” Skyler reminded me. “Besides, I think your new blade is as sharp as the old one, even without power.”

“That’s probably true,” I muttered. “Still, better safe than sorry.”

As the APC began to settle down we began to hear the sound of cannon fire, and explosions, outside. I reattached the blade to my belt and pulled myself to my feet and headed over to the briefing screen. I swapped the display over to an exterior camera to check out the situation.

I recognized the area, we were only a few blocks from the gates. Jockey had slowed to a more leisurely pace, and was busy weaving around the mounds of dead antithesis littering the street. At the far end of the road was a large group of soldiers, clustered around a battle tank. The entire group was slowly moving up, stopping at each new building and stopping long enough for soldiers to flood inside and clear the premises. I’d never considered exactly what the process of clearing an incursion zone was, but if the military had to clear each building manually, it was probably going to take awhile.

Jockey managed to squeeze us past the tank, and its APC escorts, before finally heading to the sector entrance. It was hard to see what was going on through the smoke from the numerous piles of burning antithesis left behind as the military advanced, so I flicked the monitor back off and sat back down.

“Almost there,” I told Skyler quietly as we gently leaned against each other. “You know, I was so focused on fighting today I never stopped to think about what would happen after. How our lives might change.”

“It’ll be a process,” Skyler whispered, “but we’ll figure it out together.” I reached over and took her hand, and we interlocked fingers. For the next few minutes we just sat there, just enjoying each others’ presence.

When the APC finally came to a slow stop Emily stood up. “Last stop, everyone out. Bulldog, can you please run to the medical tents and tell them we have a Seven survivor that needs to be picked up?”

The big man nodded, and slammed his big paws on the button to open the ramp. Surprisingly it wasn’t him, but Ratchet that was the first out. I couldn’t help but chuckle when I heard her moan, “This is going to take me days to fix!” from outside.

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After the rest of the team slowly piled out, Skyler and I gathered our scattered gear, placed Lala back in her carrier, then followed them off.

“I guess this is it,” Emily announced as soon as we stepped outside. She and the rest of the team had apparently been waiting for us. “You have everything?”

“We double checked,” I confirmed. “Thanks for everything that you did today, and… sorry about Terrier,” I finished awkwardly.

“It was unfortunate, but when you’re fighting antithesis you have to expect casualties. If we didn’t have you two, things probably would have turned out much worse. I’ll make sure he gets back to his family, and the Cascadian government will make sure they’re taken care of,” Emily replied. Even though she managed to keep a straight face, I could tell she was a little sad at the loss. Since we’d been in combat until now she probably hadn’t allowed herself to process until this point.

Skyler stepped forward and pulled Emily into a hug. “Thank you, for everything,” she whispered.

I noticed that both Steve and Trevor were standing awkwardly at the side, not far from the rest of the crew. “What are you two going to do now?” I asked.

Steve shrugged. “Find another unit,” he replied dispassionately. “Since our commander died on the way out of the courthouse we don’t have a unit to go back to. It’s fine, there are plenty of groups looking for experienced soldiers, so it won't take us long to get back in the saddle.”

Trevor nodded slightly. He seemed to be a lot more affected by the loss than his smartass partner, but he was holding himself together. I didn’t know what to say, so I just placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

When I turned back towards Emily I nearly tripped on Ratchet, who was already flat on her back under the vehicle. “Good working with you,” Ratchet shouted as I caught myself.

“Yeah, you too,” I replied as I stepped around her.

“Don’t worry about her,” Jockey said. “We’ve had that APC forever now, and it’s saved our lives more times than any of us can count. Ratchet may be a little obsessed with keeping it running, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t care.”

“It’s fine, I understand,” I replied. “Please take care of yourselves.”

“Don’t worry about us,” the diminutive woman said with a grin. “We’ve walked into hell many times and come back more or less intact. This is just another day on the job for us.”

I couldn’t help but smile a little at her enthusiasm. “Well that’s good. Just don’t go and get yourself in over your heads, I’d hate to hear something happened to you all.”

“We’ll do our best!” Jockey replied, throwing me a salute.

By the time I made it back to Emily, Bulldog had jogged back, followed by a couple medics. I took a moment to watch them check the status of the survivor before loading him on a stretcher and taking him away.

“If you ever need to head back into the incursion zone, you know who to call to back you up,” Emily was saying.

“We sure do,” Skyler told the woman warmly.

{Rei: We should leave them something nice, like the other samurai did. Any ideas?}

{Sky: I’d love to leave them some shield generators, but I expect they’re expensive.}

{Rei: Yeah, unfortunately. It would probably cost more than we have to equip the entire squad with them. They have decent weapons, and armor, for a PMC how about some night vision gear? Relying on those flashlights could be dangerous.}

{Sky: Great idea! Athyna can we split the cost of some nightvision glasses? Enough for the entire team?}

{Athy: Of course, if Reina agrees.}

{Rei: Yeah, do it.}

A small case appeared at Skyler’s feet, which she quickly swept up and placed in Emily’s hands.

“What’s this?” Emily asked as she accepted the small case.

“Some night vision glasses,” I explained. “Neither of us really specialize in small arms, or much else that would help professional soldiers, but we still wanted to leave you something. Hopefully you can make use of them.”

Emily smiled. “You didn’t have to do that, but we appreciate it.”

Bulldog nodded to the two of us, “You two take care of yourselves, I look forward to reading all about your exploits soon.”

“We’ll do our best,” Skyler replied with a smile.

“You should check in with the commander before you leave,” Emily suggested. “They’ll want to know what your plans are.” She lowered her voice slightly, “And this will probably be your best chance to discuss what we discovered at Tanaka for a while.”

I grimaced slightly. “Yeah, thanks for the reminder,” I mumbled as I turned towards the titanic command vehicle nearby. “I guess there’s no point in delaying, let's get this over with.”